You might be familiar with the term growth mindset. At its foundation, it’s about you being in control of your life and that you can work your way to getting where you want to me. When it comes to chiropractic treatments, I am aligned to think the same applies.
The Fixed Mindset in Chiropractic Care
The fixed mindset is pretty common in pain patients.
We often hear people attributing their back pain to the degeneration in their spines even though research says there’s poor correlation between back pain and degenerative findings.
They may also attribute their neck pain to alignment issues or bad posture even though, again, research doesn’t support posture as a cause of pain.
This is a fixed mindset mentality.
Adopting a growth mindset in pain management
The people who responds best to therapy are the ones who are most open to changing. What you really want to do is to shift your focus to what you can do to change your pain experience.
The best first step is to seek professional help. A musculoskeletal healthcare provider such as a chiropractor or a physiotherapists are likely to be able to help you through your pain recovery.
Of course seeking professional help will cost money. Maybe you are not ready to allocate your spending towards addressing your pain or perhaps you don’t have the financial resources for that. And that is okay. Because in the growth mindset, you are going to focus on what you can do.
Exercise can be free
Most HDB estates in Singapore come with a outdoor fitness corner within walking distance. It might take a bit of time to find out where they are but you should have access to one. If you live in a condo then you must likely have access to a gym or a swimming pool.
This is a good place to start and this is something you can do by yourself.
If you don’t know what exercises are suitable for you, you can look them up on Google, YouTube, or Instagram. Don’t expect mind-blowing results. We have blogged about why Instagram rehabilitation doesn’t give you full recovery.
Nonetheless, it’s a good place to start.
You can start with walking
Maybe you are worried about exercises making your pain or injury worse.
Maybe you don’t have experiences with exercises and you don’t feel confident or ready to start.
That’s okay. This is why there are professionals from chiropractors to personal trainers to help you out.
Even if you are not willing to spend money on their services, there is still one exercise you can do: walking.
There are studies to show that walking or cycling to work reduces your risk of lower back pain. In a different Korean study, walking was also found to reduce risk of lower back pain.
What if you already have pain? There is low-to-moderate quality evidence that walking alone is an effective strategy/treatment for lower back pain.
Apply a growth mindset to your recovery
As a chiropractor, I work with our clients from a growth mindset capacity. We avoid using terms like “weak core” or “fragile backs” or “poor posture” in clinical practice because we don’t find them to particularly valuable.
In fact, research is suggesting those terms have a negative impact on treatment outcomes.
So if you are suffering from any pain or injury today, I’d like to encourage you to take action.
You can start small with walking.
Perhaps start today with a 30 minutes walk?
p.s. if you are already seeking professional help, check out our blog post on how to maximise your treatment outcomes.
BOOK A CHIROPRACTOR IN SINGAPORE
Based in Singapore, Square One Active Recovery offers treatments with a very big difference. With our evidence-based exercise approach, you can achieve your recovery goals in just 12 weeks. Not getting results from your chiropractor, TCM doctor or physiotherapist? Talk to us and find out how we can take your recovery to the next level.
Our goal? To make our own services redundant to you.
*We do not offer temporary pain relief such as chiropractic adjustments, dry needling, or any form of soft tissue therapy.
